Carolina Vargas is a Project Coordinator and Care Coordinator in the UAMS Northwest Office of Community Health and Research who brings five years of experience to the Healthy Start team.
As Project Coordinator, Carolina is responsible for finding resources for families based on what they feel they need the most, find donations to help the Healthy Start program and support other areas of the department. As a Care Coordinator, she helps connect families with existing programs and teaches them how to find new programs in the future.
Carolina is from Arizona and California, where her parents worked in agriculture.
“My family and community inspired me to enter this career,” she said. “I grew up around people who worked hard and had insurance and didn’t know how to use it.”
Fluent in both English and Spanish, Carolina has translated for people in her community for as long as she can remember. She was also the first person in her family to graduate from both high school and college.
“Being the first one to graduate from high school, community college and a university was already such an accomplishment, but I am grateful for friends who invested in me while I was a nontraditional student at the University of Arkansas, while learning to be in a single mom in 2014,” she said. “I am very grateful to Dr. Zajicek, Dr. Bill Schwab, Iresma Roldan, Tony Harrison and Eddie and Becky Cantύ for their support and encouragement throughout all these years. There are many more that have helped me since then, and they continue to inspire me. It is hard for me not to be inspired to help those in need. I strongly believe that if you are able to help, there are so many ways to do, so don’t let anything stop you.”
Carolina lives in the Fayetteville/Springdale area with her two children. She can be reached at CNVargas@UAMS.edu.